Thursday, December 29, 2005

The Origin of Me

Kimbro family motto: Frangas non flectes (translated):

Thall may'st break, but shalt not bend me.



As you can see, my family crest displays a silver shield with three black Cornish choughs and three silver mullets on a black chief.

English: from the Old English female personal name Cyneburh, composed of the elements cyne- + burh royal + fortress, stronghold. This name was borne by a daughter of the 7th-century King Penda of Mercia, who, in spite of her father's staunch opposition to Christianity, was converted and founded an abbey, serving as its head. She was venerated as a saint in the Middle Ages, and children were named after her.

Today's generation of the Kimbro family bears a name that was first used by the Kimbro family who lived in the county of Cornwall at South Kimber.

First found in Cornwall where they were seated from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D.

Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants were: Henry and Mary Kimber arrived in Philadelphia in 1753; John Kimber settled in Charles Town in 1764.

Variants include: Kimber, Kember, Kimbrough and others.

Friday, December 16, 2005

LibriVox

LibriVox: free audiobooks


About LibriVox: LibriVox is a hope, an experiment, and a question: can the net harness a bunch of volunteers to help bring books in the public domain to life through podcasting?

LibriVox wants all books in the public domain to be available, for free, in audio format, on the internet. We ask volunteers to record chapters of books in the public domain in digital format; all you need is a computer, some free recording software, and your own voice! We are a totally volunteer, open source , free content, public domain project.

Once we get the files, we catalog them , and podcast the books, one at a time. Lend your voice to a good cause.

We get most of our texts from Project Gutenberg , and the Internet Archive hosts our audio files.

For the moment we don’t need any money, we’ll let you know if that changes!

Now this may not sound extremly exciting to some, but for my grandmother, it is a blessing. She went blind several years ago and she does not have the ability to read braile. She, as well as my wife and I, are part of a The National Federation of the Blind: Murray Chapter. Of course the budget for its members is barely enough to send a few of them to Frankfort, Ky twice a year and host an annual Christmas Party. As you can imagine, free audio books are a blessing. I can download these, chapter by chapter, and burn them to Cds for her enjoyment. I have already sent a letter to Hugh McGuire generously thanking him for personally placing a smile on my grandmother's face. His blog is called Dose Magazine.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Feeding frenzy!

Well, my son is now 4 months old. I know this benchmark doesn't sound incredibly interesting at first, but wait until you know what it means. It is time to start cereal! I have heard mixed emotions on cereal - some say it is hard to get your infant started and some say it isn't bad at all. From the looks of things, I would say Carter had a pretty easy time getting used to it.



2005 Christmas Party

My company's annual Christmas party at the Opryland Hotel. Free food, free drinks and lots o' fun!

The family in the "jungle"

My beautifu wife and son

Daniel (aka: Harry Potter) and his brand new fiancé Amanda

My beautiful daughter and her new friend Kristen

The family at the dinner. Can you find the hidden booboo lip?

Yo-Yo's

No, I am not talking about the plethora of ignorant fast food workers we come across daily but, in fact, actual Yo-Yo's. You know, those round things with the strings attached.



My daughter received a Yo-Yo for advent. My wife's family introduced me to advent. More or less, you get a gift every day of December up until Christmas. I know you have seen those advent calendars in grocery stores and such. Anyway, it is usually a very small monetary item (ie: a pack of gum, a tube of lipstick, a fishing lure, etc.) and in Bailey's case, a Yo-Yo! Angie's dad is quite good. I am at the opposite end of the polar scale, however. So it got me wanting to do better. I search Google, of course, and found this a video of the 2005 Japanese Champion.



Yo-Yo Tricks (click 'em):
Three Seven
White Buddha
Shock Wave
Suicide Catch
Kwijibo
Eli Hop
Slack Trapeze
Spirit Bomb
Black Hop
Iron Whip

Back to the ole drawing board...

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Christmas with the Kimbros

Deck the halls with boughs of holly
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
'Tis the season to be jolly
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Don we now our gay apparel
Fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la.
Troll the ancient Yule-tide carol
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.

See the blazing Yule before us.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Strike the harp and join the chorus.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Follow me in merry measure.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
While I tell of Yule-tide treasure.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la

Fast away the old year passes.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Hail the new year, lads and lasses
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Sing we joyous, all together.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
heedless of the wind and weather.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la